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Thursday, February 7, 2013

Men in Black

Some of you might be judging me right now. So I'm just going to get this out of the way.

I LOVE THESE MOVIES!!!

There. I said it.

I know they have foul language. I know some of the jokes are crass or inappropriate. I know aliens probably aren't real.

But that doesn't take away that these are fantastic movies.

That aside, let's go into some details, shall we? (I am only reviewing the first MIB here. II and III coming later...)

Characters

One of the reasons these movies are so cool is because they only focus basically only on two characters, K and J. I'll start with my personal favorite, J.

Will Smith plays Agent J to absolute perfection. One minute he's the cocky police officer, the next a secret agent that battles extra-terrestrials, and he still has the same personality and quirks. I love how J grows throughout the first movie. The first time we see J, he is chasing down a bad dude as a NYC police officer. He catches him and finds out this "guy" is an alien right before he commits suicide. J tries to explain to the older police officers, but they scoff at him. J shows disrespect and rudeness to those older than him many times throughout the movie. However, by the end of the movie, J has a high respect, admiration, and friendship towards K, his older mentor.

Tommy Lee Jones is INCREDIBLE as Agent K. K is the perfect mentor because he is not perfect. He's surly, sometimes a little demeaning, and has an addiction to neuralyzing people. However, he is also very discerning, and notes qualities in J others might not see. He takes a chance on him, and trains J to be one of the Men in Black. K is the perfect balance of crustiness and care, of demeaning and discernment.

Vincent D'Onofrio was awesome as the "Bug", or the Edgar Suit. The "Bug" is a giant, cock-roach like alien that takes over the body, after killing and eating, of Edgar, a farmer. He's a hilariously unique villain, with hilariously unique lines. It's sad that Vincent has had problems. I would have loved to see him do more movies.

Plot

MIB plots are cool because they seem extremely simple at first, but then they grow larger and larger until the movie barely manages to have time to explain the entire story. Even then, it takes a few watches to catch everything. Some people might not like this, but I find it enjoyable, since there are so many laughs you are bound to forget some of them.

They don't have much in the way of villain, really. (MIB3 excepted...*shudder*) They have an alien that they have to stop from doing something bad, but along the way they always meet a bunch of wacky characters that all feel real, and are all hilarious. The villain grows more evil towards the end though, so you truly do hate him.

Cons

Ugly language. Some crude jokes. Some inappropriate jokes. There is one conversation between J and Laurel, the morgue lady. that is rather awkward.

K: "At any given point in time, there are over 1500 aliens on planet Earth, most of them right here in Manhattan. Most of them are decent enough, just trying to make a living."
J: "Cab drivers?"
K: "Not as many as you'd think."

There's a lot more funnier quotes, but you have to watch the movie to catch those.

Overall Impression

Have I not made it clear? Awesome. Epic. Hilarious. Gotta love Will Smith. The main con is the ugly language. But it was so much fun watching this movie with my parents and my brother! And seriously, how do you NOT like this???

(side note: I never put violence in cons unless it was absolutely unneeded and the movie only had it for shock value. I admit, an adventure movie without violence is sort of like Gone With the Wind with no Rhett. Completely and utterly boring and semi-pointless. So that will never be in cons unless it is there for NO reason for it, or if is over the top graphic.)

Hint: Cowboys. Arizona. Shootouts. Southern not-so-gentleman. AND based on a true story? Where can you possibly go wrong?